Epistemic Landscapes and the Division of Cognitive Labor.

Because contemporary scientific research is conducted by groups of scientists, understanding scientific progress requires understanding this division of cognitive labor. We present a novel agent-based model of scientific research in which scientists divide their labor to explore an unknown epistemic...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Philosophy of Science Vol. 76; no. 2; pp. 225 - 253
Autores principales: Weisberg, Michael, Muldoon, Ryan
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Cambridge University Press Apr2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=52368195&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 52368195
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00318248
        PSC
      jtl: Philosophy of Science
      issn: 00318248
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Apr2009
      vid: 76
      iid: 2
      pid: 15979
      pub: Cambridge University Press
    artinfo:
      ui:
        52368195
        10.1086/644786
      ppf: 225
      ppct: 28
      formats:
        fmt:
          @attributes:
            type: P
            size: 459KB
      tig:
        atl: Epistemic Landscapes and the Division of Cognitive Labor.
      aug:
        au:
          Weisberg, Michael
          Muldoon, Ryan
        affil:
          Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, 433 Cohen Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104
          Joseph L. Rotman Institute of Science and Values, Department of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7 Canada
      su:
        Philosophy of science
        Scientists
        Research methodology
        Theory of knowledge
        Genetic polymorphisms
      sug:
        subj:
          Philosophy of science
          Scientists
          Research methodology
          Theory of knowledge
          Genetic polymorphisms
      ab: Because contemporary scientific research is conducted by groups of scientists, understanding scientific progress requires understanding this division of cognitive labor. We present a novel agent-based model of scientific research in which scientists divide their labor to explore an unknown epistemic landscape. Scientists aim to find the most epistemically significant research approaches. We consider three different search strategies that scientists can adopt for exploring the landscape. In the first, scientists work alone and do not let the discoveries of the community influence their actions. This is compared with two social research strategies: Followers are biased toward what others have already discovered, and we find that pure populations of these scientists do less well than scientists acting independently. However, pure populations of mavericks, who try to avoid research approaches that have already been taken, vastly outperform the other strategies. Finally, we show that, in mixed populations, mavericks stimulate followers to greater levels of epistemic production, making polymorphic populations of mavericks and followers ideal in many research domains.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Philosophy of Science is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Philosophy of Science
      holder: Cambridge University Press
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2009
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N